


The Greatest Happiness On Earth...

by LI0NH34RT



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: CareersAU, Cowboys, M/M, ThiamHalfBirthday, ThiamHalfwayBirthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 21:24:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14962427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LI0NH34RT/pseuds/LI0NH34RT
Summary: Liam and his friends decide to go on a Ranch Holiday... only Liam might’ve lied about his horse riding abilities and ends up trailing behind the group. He somehow manages to fall of his horse into a bunch of cacti. He’s embarrassed when the sarcastic ranch hand, Theo, circles back around and has to rescue him.





	The Greatest Happiness On Earth...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SeaxWitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeaxWitch/gifts).



> For Colby, because it was your prompt and because I miss you. ♥

It wasn’t really a surprise. In fact, Liam had known this was a bad idea as soon as the words left his mouth.

Still, he hadn’t expected the situation to turn out _this_ bad.

 

_Yes, Mason, I know how to ride a horse. In fact, I even had a horse of my own as a kid._

_Why had he said that?_

In that moment their guide, the ranch hand of the place they were staying on, turned in his saddle and shot him a questioning glance.

“Everything okay back there, cowboy?”

_Oh right. Hot guy and he didn’t want to embarrass himself._

 

“Everything is Great!”, Liam called back, with emphasis on the capital G, while he frantically tried to bring his horse, a relatively old dark brown one (was it a boy or a girl horse again?) back on track, but the animal seemed to deem the herbs on the ground far more interesting than the boy on its back.

 

_That is what you get for being a liar..._ his inner voice sounded suspiciously like his mom in this moment.

Okay, he might have exaggerated a little bit when it came to his horse riding skills.

 

But if you’ve done it once you can do it again right? Liam thought back to his sister’s tenth birthday. The whole family plus five little girls from Lyana's class had spend the day on a pony ranch. Alright, maybe Liam had sat a total of 30 minutes on the back of a Shetland pony before he deemed the puppies and rabbits more interesting, but hey! he had ridden a horse before and technically it had belonged to him for those dreadful 30 minutes.

 

Lost in his thoughts Liam failed to notice how far behind he trailed after the group. He started to think that the whole situation wasn’t even his fault. It wasn’t like he wanted to go on a wild west holiday. He just trailed along because his friends had enough of his “Mopey face” after his recent break up from Hayden.

Mason and Corey had never even seen a real horse before this and even though Brett and Lori made a fairly decent figure on their animals – his horse definitely had to be one of the most stubborn.

 

Liam shot the twitching ears in front of him an angry glance before searching the area for his group again.

After a few minutes he had to accept the truth – they had left him. All by himself. In this no-man's-land.

_Some friends I have..._

 

“Come on! Be a good little pony and bring me back home? I will even give you a carrot!”

But it was no use – the horse calmly continued to eat and ignore it’s rider.

 

For a moment Liam just sat there in the saddle and contemplated what he had ever done wrong that he deserved to be in this situation.

Then an idea came to his mind: Every time one of the cowboy in those old western his step dad loved, wanted to ride faster, they kicked their horse with the back of their feet.

_Let’s see if Theo was right to call me a cowboy!_

With that he pressed his heels into the horse's sides.

 

The formerly calm, nearly phlegmatic horse rips its head up, bocks and breaks out into sprint so fast even racing horses would have been proud.

And off it goes in the direction the group must have went.

The only problem is – Liam, who didn’t expect a head start, doesn’t move.

For a second he feels like flying, then the force of the bocking catapults him straight into a bunch of cacti which are conveniently (because he wouldn’t be Liam if he just fell on the hard ground, no it's all or nothing) growing in this part of the desert.

Still in shock from the fall he lays there, crushed cacti around him and the only sound hearable is a pained groan.

 

“Ouch! Fuck!”, after he could finally breathe normally again, Liam slowly started to crawl out of his uncomfortable bed, “Oh man, those spikes really hurt!”

 

“Actually, cacti have thorns”, an amused voice behind him says.

_Please, dear god or whatever high entity, please, anyone but him!_

But all his prayers are of no use because when the blonde boy finally turns around he finds himself face to face with Theo. Or rather, Theo’s horse.

The young man himself sits in the saddle as if he was born that way. And he clearly has way too much fun with Liam’s misery.

“Hey cowboy, how’s it going?” he grins down at the other boy.

 

“Oh, you know, actually I am right where I wanted to be.” and to Theo’s unbelieving face he continues: “yes, the, uhm... plants here are fascinating. I thought a walk would be fun, you know. To give my horse a little break.”

“So you decided to let Bronco run back to the ranch all on his own? And you wanted to walk the entire five miles?”

_Five miles?! Shit..._

But if Liam is anything, it is stubborn and so he ignores his inner voice screaming and calling him an idiot and nods “yep. I am good here.”

Theo’s eyebrows reach a new high on his forehead and he seems to suppress a chuckle.

“Alright, so if I just leave you here, you will find your way back?”

_NO!_

“...Yes?”

 

“That sounds very convincing, but I am responsible for you, so it kind of is my job to bring you back to the ranch in one piece. Sorry, but I think you have to miss out on another encounter with those interesting plants. Hop on, Tundra can carry us both.”

 

Liam takes a step towards the horse, then he hesitates, causing Theo to sigh.

“What is it now?”

“Uhm... I kind of... have a few of those _fascinating thorns_ in my... uhm...”, he mumbles the rest of the sentence, but the dark haired boy already broke into laughter anyway.

It feels like an eternity until Theo can control himself enough to slide down his horse's side and put his bridle around another cactus.

Still grinning brightly (it let’s his eyes shine, Liam notices as Theo comes closer) he steps forward.

“Then come on, lets see your thorns so we can get back to the ranch while there is still daylight.”

 

Half an hour later Liam sits on a horse again. Behind Theo, his arms closed around the ranch hands waist with iron grip to not fall down again.

If Theo notices his panic he chooses to stay quiet for once and ignore it.

 

They reach the gate that announces they are now entering ‘Hale's Ranch' just as the sun starts to go down. The orange and red light does pretty things with Theo’s dark hair, how Liam’s tired and probably overheated brain notices.

 

“Oh my god Liam!”, that is Mason, running towards them, “what the hell did you do now? I can’t leave you alone for five minutes!”

 

Liam lets himself slide of Tundra, he is shaking with anger.

“Stop treating me like I am a toddler Mase! I am hot and sweaty and my ass hurts. And I didn’t even want to go on this stupid survival holiday for city people! You insisted on bringing me here. So please, just leave me alone before I say something I will regret!”

 

With that he storms of towards his room, Mason and Theo staying behind and exchanging worried looks.

 

 

An hour later Liam is finally calm again. He showered, put on fresh clothes and got a sandwich from the kitchen. Along with a bottle of water and a chocolate bar he brought it out to the small bench behind the main building, it is quiet back here and the last rays of sunlight warm his skin.

 

The boy eats in peace and when the food is gone his mind has stopped racing.

Just as he closes his eyes a small noise let’s him turn around.

Theo stands there, still in jeans and cowboy boots, but now with a clean black shirt slightly tightening over the young man’s chest.

“Hi”, he smiles, making his way over to the bench.

They sit next to each other for a while, neither of them saying a word, until Liam breaks the silence.

 

“I am sorry. About what I said before, I didn’t mean to be rude, but I was cranky and embarrassed...” he trails of.

“What were you embarrassed about?” Theo asks and Liam can feel the blush creeping up his cheeks.

“I lied about knowing how to ride a horse – I mean obviously, since I fell of. And then it’s you of all people, who finds me.”

 

Theo is quiet again, before he says in a weirdly small voice: “You really hate me that much huh?”

“What? What do you mean with that?”

“The fact that you can barely even look at me. Or how about that: you said a total of maybe 20 words to me since your group arrived yesterday.”

 

Liam is speechless for a minute, then a small giggle escapes him.

“I am sorry!” he hastily calls out when he sees Theo’s offended look, “I am sorry for being an idiot, but Theo, I don’t hate you. I _like_ you. I just didn’t know what to do. We are here for two weeks and you are way out of my league anyways, so I just thought I would wait it out.”

 

“Liam...”, Theo whispers, his hands clasping around Liam's, “please, stop talking.”

And when Liam turns around, his mouth already open to complain about being shushed, Theo kisses him.

And just like that, his mind is blank and for this moment, it’s just two guys, kissing at sunset.

 

 


End file.
